The Modern banned list. It’s become a sort of hot topic locally as well as on a professional level. At 31 cards, its quite a long list. At first glance some of the cards might seem innocuous, but any competitive magic player knows that if they can’t figure out why a card is too powerful to be played that there is likely a very good reason. The current banned list in Modern is as follows, alphabetically.
Ancestral Vision
Ancient Den
Bitterblossom
Blazing Shoal
Bloodbraid Elf
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Great Furnace
Green Sun’s Zenith
Hypergenesis
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Seat of the Synod
Second Sunrise
Seething Song
Sensei’s Divining Top
Stoneforge Mystic
Skullclamp
Sword of the Meek
Tree of Tales
Umezawa’s Jitte
Vault of Whispers
Wild Nacatl
That’s a whooper sure but let’s take a look at the list by color real quick.
Colorless 12
Ancient Den
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Great Furnace
Seat of The Synod
Sensei’s Divining Top
Skullclamp
Sword of the Meek
Tree of Tales
Umezawa’s Jitte
Vault of Whipsers
Blue 5
Ancestral Visions
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Green 5
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave Troll
Green Sun’s Zenith
Hypergenesis
Wild Nacatl
Red 4
Blazing Shoal
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Seething Song
White 2
Second Sunrise
Stoneforge Mystic
Black 2
Blitterblossom
Dread Return
Gold 1
Bloodbraid Elf
Ok this starts to give us an idea of what’s going on. We can see some colors are more heavily policed than others. Green riding in at 6, if you count Bloodbraid Elf, followed by blue /red and on down the line. Artifact/Land bring the biggest line steppers.
Like I said its a big list, so here’s another look at it: why these cards are banned.
Combo Enablers 21
Ancient Den
Chrome Mox
Dark Depths
Great Furnace
Skullclamp
Tree of Tales
Vault of Whispers
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Green Sun’s Zenith
Hypergenesis
Blazing Shoal
Preordain
Ponder
Rite of Flame
Seething Song
Second Sunrise
Dread Return
Sword of the Meek
Seat of the Synod
Cloud Post
Single Powerful Cards 8
Sensei’s Divining Top
Umezawa’s Jitte
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Ancestral Visions
Punishing Fire
Stoneforge Mystic
Bitterblossom
Bloodbraid Elf
Format Warping Powerhouses 2
Wild Nacatl
Mental Misstep
These are the basic reasons these cards were banned. One thing casual, professional and amateur players agree with is that this list is too damned long. Modern as of late has become a stale format, with very little incentive to brew new deck ideas. One of those reasons is the overall lack of recent support of the format. Modern Masters was a step in the right direction, the lack of any meaningful tournament support in the form of PTQ season, or possibly more Grand Prix (there’s one less next year, despite adding more GPs to the yearly Schedule). The second, allow me to get off my high horse for a second, is that people have “figured out” the format. It’s BGx in Jund or Junk vs UWR Control, or Living End against Tron or Melira Pod vs Kiki Pod splinter Twin vs … Well you get the picture there’s a variety of decks sure but those decks are all about a year old if not older.
That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong from a game design perspective about seeing a consistency in decks. But as players, we are getting bored. My LGS has seen a recent drop in attendance for Modern. When MMA came out we were capping the events at 21 each Tuesday. Players were excited, ready to play with the new goodies that they’d opened it was awesome!
I digress though, one way to shake up a format is to see if anything looks like it could be unbanned. What’s become less powerful in the wake other bannings and new cards printed? What cards may have been banned for reasons that are now moot.
The other way to shake up a format is to introduce new bannings. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT HAPPEN. The current list is plenty long and I think if we look at it logically we might be able to shake a few cards loose.
This is going to be a two part article. First, I’ll go over each card individually and see why it was banned. Does that reason still hold meaning? Is the format safe with that card? And my overall pass/fail rating as to whether we could see that card back without ruining the format.
Before I go into the individual cards though, I want to remind you of the modern credo. This will be a reference as to why cards get banned in the first place. I’ll also use it to argue for why cards may or may not need to remain on the list. Let’s try to keep this scientific.
1. No Dominating or Formerly Dominating Archetypes and Strategies.
2. No Consistent Turn Three Combo Decks.
We can discuss this rule set later for now here are the cards, why they were banned and my personal take on whether they can be set free now.
Sensei’s Divining Top
What they had to say: Data from tournaments held in previous Extended formats showed that Sensei’s Divining Top takes too long to play with. When rounds go to time, everyone in the entire tournament has less fun. If Modern ever caught on seriously, we would likely have to ban Top, so we decided to reflect that in this experiment.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
I can get behind this. Watching matches go 30mins past time is a good excuse to not allow a card to be in a format. Fail
Umezawa’s Jitte
What they had to say: Although Umezawa’s Jitte is by far the most powerful Equipment in Legacy, it is not quite as game-ruiningly powerful as some of the other cards on this list. Historically, Umezawa’s Jitte has been an extremely powerful card against creature decks, with mirror matches between creature decks often degenerating into battles over Jitte. Unfortunately, Stoneforge Mystic gives decks that want to fight against creature decks consistent access to Jitte and a creature to put it on. We think that Stoneforge Mystic is the more fun of the two cards, so rather than allow such a strong anti-creature-deck pressure to remain in the format, we chose to ban the real offender: Umezawa’s Jitte.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
This is interesting. One of the main reasons they banned Jitte is because Stoneforge was allowed to run free. With Stoneforge gone I think we could probably allow for Jitte to come back. There are ways to deal with it. It’s a powerful card but not unstoppable. And yes it creates unwinnable situations but that’s sort of the point of many cards, like Batterskull for example. Pass
Jace, The Mind Sculptor
What they had to say: Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the obvious candidate. Jace is strong enough to be banned in Standard, is a Legacy staple, and has been in three of the four decks that made the finals of the last two Vintage championships.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
These days, I don’t think that. “It was a card in a vintage deck” isn’t really a fair reason to ban a card. Standard is a much less diverse format than Modern. We have Detention Sphere, Hero’s Downfall, and Dreadbore (those are all even legal in Standard) to deal with Planeswalkers now. Direct damage and just good old attacking are fine ways to kill Planeswalkers too. Pass
Ancestral Vision
What they had to say: The last Modern-legal card that has been making a huge splash in Legacy control decks is Ancestral Vision. While not every Jace, the Mind Sculptor deck in Legacy plays Ancestral Vision, a great many of them do. The combination of Ancestral Vision, Spell Snare, and other counterspells lets control decks draw cards very cheaply without getting behind early on, and that’s powerful enough that we feel safer having it banned.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
You know what pretty much no format has right now? A mono blue control deck. Why? Well there’s a lack of decent advantage. Visions is not overly broken without the Faeries shell to play it in or a way to set up a (let alone a relevant) cascade spell. If we unban AV though that means we need to take that into consideration when think about Bitterblossom. Pass
Punishing Fire
What they had to say: Punishing Fire, when combined with Grove of the Burnwillows, gives a repeatable 2 damage for 3 mana. This pair of cards is commonly used, and is devastating to creature decks relying on creatures with less than 2 toughness. It also is a very slow and reliable win condition, netting 1 life for 3 mana. Tribal decks relying on 2 toughness “lords” see very little play, and this is a major barrier to their success.
https://www.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/174b
This card does make a good deck much much better. I think it’s safe to say it was banned for the right reasons and the correct card was left in the format. Fail
Stoneforge Mystic
What they had to say: I hope that the fact this card is on the banned list isn’t a surprise to you. Stoneforge Mystic has by now made its mark on every format from Standard to Legacy, and Stoneforge-based blue control decks regularly do well in Legacy tournaments. Porting such decks into Modern was a trivial affair, and resulted in very powerful decks. We prefer to just ban this card rather than risk yet another format dominated by Stoneforge Mystic.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
Again Stoneforge Mystic, allows for the game to dominated by decks running this card and deck beating decks running this card. If we unleashed Jitte and/or Jace, Stoneforge should most definitely stay banned. Just SFM and Batterskull alone would likely be too powerful for Modern. Fail
Bitterblossom
What they had to say: After everything I’ve just told you about choosing to ban, the last obvious deck that we haven’t hit is Faeries, which was almost certainly the best deck in four-year Extended the last time we ran it. While Faeries does not currently have as much enmity from players as Stoneforge Mystic decks do, its historical popularity is not very high. We would rather remove it than risk a Faeries-dominated Pro Tour.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
I think the SFM problem applies to Bitterblossom on as well. Yes there are ways to combat the decks this card would make popular, but no one wants a two deck format. Wizards has worked very hard (if not efficiently) to keep that from happening. Fail
Bloodbraid Elf
What they had to say: It has been a year since the last time a card was banned in Modern. Over that period of time, one card, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, was unbanned. In the meantime, Jund has been the most successful deck at high-level tournaments. Yuuya Watanabe won the Magic Player’s Championship playing Jund. Then, Yuuya came in 2nd at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica by playing Jund again.
At that point, it was clear Yuuya was dominating, but the status of Jund in Modern was less clear.
Since then, we have had four Modern Grands Prix. Jérémy Dezani won Grand Prix Lyon playing Jund. Jacob Wilson defeated Josh Utter-Leyton in a Jund-on-Jund finals to win Grand Prix Chicago. Willy Edel won Grand Prix Toronto, also playing Jund. And, finally, Lukas Jaklovsky came in 2nd, playing Jund, at Grand Prix Bilbao. Beyond that, Jund took six of the Top 16 decks at Bilbao.
While the rest of the format is quite diverse, the dominance of Jund is making it less so overall. The DCI looked to ban a card. We wanted a card that top players consistently played four copies of in Jund, but ideally was less played in other top Modern decks. That would give the best chance of creating a more balanced metagame. The card that best fits our criteria is Bloodbraid Elf.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/232
It’s pretty obvious that this card enables some insanely ridiculous plays. And frankly, Jund doesn’t seem to need anymore help placing large events. Lets definitely keep this locked up. Fail.
Mental Misstep
Of blue cards that are legal in Modern, Mental Misstep is the most played in Legacy, and it also has one of the more damaging effects on Modern by sitting on beatdown decks that want to start on turn one. We chose to ban it rather than put that much pressure on beatdown decks.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/155
Let’s be seriously, every deck would run these just to protect their one drops in case other decks were running these. That seems horrible. Fail.
Wild Nacatl
Wild Nacatl is a creature that simply attacks and blocks very efficiently. It is very unusual to ban such a card. We looked at our Modern tournaments and previous Extended tournaments to find when the attacking decks were fairly diverse, and when they were dominated by Zoo. At Pro Tour Austin 2009, won by Brian Kibler playing Zoo, most attack decks were of the Zoo variety. Next year, at Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010, won by Paul Rietzl playing white weenie, the Top 8 had a variety of attacking decks: Brad Nelson and Brian Kibler played Doran decks, Paul Rietzl and Kai Budde played White Weenie, and Marijn Lybaert played Merfolk. The format was different but, other than the lands, the only cards in Brian’s main deck that could not be played were two copies of Lightning Helix. The lands were the big change, and a very important difference was that the mana base in Austin meant Wild Nacatl was a very reliable 3/3, but would not be so reliable in Amsterdam.
We looked for cards to unban, but not only could you play the Amsterdam deck as is, other powerful cards are already available in Modern. For example, Æther Vial was unavailable to Marijn, but is legal in Modern. The Vial is considered one of the stronger cards in Legacy Merfolk decks. The problem is that other decks try to use synergy to get rewards, but those rewards aren’t any better than the Wild Nacatl. For example, the Doran decks use Treefolk Harbinger to find Doran. When it all works, the Harbinger is effectively a 3/3 for 
. With shock lands, Wild Nacatl is a 3/3, and doesn’t let you down when your opponent kills your Doran. With some effort, Student of Warfare becomes a 3/3 First Strike creature, but that isn’t a sufficient reward for the effort compared with Wild Nacatl. This creature is so efficient it is keeping too many other creature decks from being competitive. So, in the interest of diversity, the DCI is banning Wild Nacatl.
https://www.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/174b
This card can be set free for sure. Aggro decks in modern are few and far between. No one is quitting magic because they got slammed for 3 on turn 2. Goblin Guide does more work until turn 4. Yes, yes, I know the old dies to Doom Blade argument is older than time but its really not that insane to have a 3/3 on turn 2. Reliably or not. Pass
So for the first pass on the list it looks like Jace, Ancestral Vision, Umezawa’s Jitte and Wild Nacatl could come back without too much freaking out. Imagine that, a format with a solid Aggro Creature loose and some great Control cards as well as one if the most powerful equipment cards produced. What do you think? Any arguments for something I didn’t pass?
Next week it’s combo enablers. And I’ll look at all the Pass/Fail cards, hopefully we’ll have a new I’ll take a look at the cards that were banned for the second reason on the modern credo: No Consistent Turn Three Combo Decks. Let me know what you’d like to see unbanned in Modern. Tell me why you think I’m wrong about Jace. Find me on twitter @durdlemagus. I’ll respond. Let the Flame War begin.
Zac Clark @Durdlemagus